CH 3
I dragged myself along the forest path, feet dragging along the dirt. My shoes were long gone and my clothes were ripped but not bad enough to fall off. I just had solace in the fact that my feet ached and bled. They were human feet. I had half a mind to think it was a horrible nightmare, but there was evidence. The dirt and blood under my broken nails, the piercing headache when I looked into something too bright. It reminded me of the shaman man and the horrible pain that followed.
Where was I walking, you might ask. I was unsure of that myself. I had no clue where I was. Definitely not anywhere in California. The mountains were looming and covered in snow. There was a dark haze over one of the mountains, clouds full of mysterious lightning and rippling winds. Something told me to go there, but the walk would be excruciating. Luckily I had no feeling in my feet. The mountain I was on was sparsely forested, after closer inspection, pumice was dotting the ground. Cutting my feet and rubbing them raw. These were the remnants of a volcano. This started to make a little more sense to me as I inspected the rest of the way down. Not a bug, or an animal to be seen the entire volcano. It was devoid of life and had an eerie silence. Even with the silence, something felt like a pressure on the back of my head.
"Hello?" my voice was gravely from misuse but it rang through the empty space.
"Hehehe, little ghoul, why are you here?" Spoke a quiet high pitched voice. It sounded as if it was right next to my ear and I jerked away. As I looked over a small creature flew by. Something with transparent wings and dark skin.
"You shouldnt be in fairyland little ghoul, we dont like your kind here." Another flash and the thing was in front of me. I can only explain it as a pixie, except not a nice one, but one with a wide mouth that had jagged teeth like a shark. While It couldn't bite anything off except maybe a finger, I did not want to test the pain.
"I didnt choose to come here, I want to go back where I was."
"Il send you back if you can catch me." the shrill voice rose and disappeared, it was already speeding away. I looked at my feet torn and tired and raced towards the pixie. Already 5 seconds in I knew this was an unfair challenge. I was weak and slow while the flying thing could well… fly. I kept trying and almost grasping the little thing reaching out again and again. I swear it kept slowing down so I could taste victory then buzzed away faster than I thought possible. Its hair looked like moss and If you didn't notice it flying around Im sure it would blend in with any nature background.
"I got you!" I reached out once more, tumbling to the ground and rolling twice. I had its wing in my hand before I fell. It now laid next to me with one wing left and in my hand, the other rested. "You wretched ghoul. You ripped off my wing!" Its face was twisted with rage. "Leave here now!" The little pixie bit my finger and the world swam in front of me. I held on to the stolen wing as tight as I could.
My skin was ripping again, tearing and stretching. I felt my shoulders dislocate and relocate themselves. Everything was pain and suffering. I heard myself screaming and that scream become something inhuman and strangled. I could not see anything but clouds of white and grey and black. Everything was unfocused and I stumbled around rather gracefully on all fours. Souls were surrounding me, all flavors and tastes. It was a graveyard?
I could not control my body, it was only need and hunger again. My body was a black hole of hunger. I slurped up the souls, they were like sipping a straw at the end of a drink. It was a soul but mostly just air. Not like when I devoured that person earlier. These were just shades, barely husks of a soul. It wasn't enough but I kept running around and my tongue attached itself to the souls and drew them into my gaping mouth. That one was melancholy flavored, and this one had a little bit of regret, and this one oh was more murder and anger. That one was a bit more spicy if you could imagine the taste of that. I devoured every single shade in the graveyard, it barely kept me full. That was at least 30 souls that now resided in my stomach. I could feel them, sometimes alone thoughts that didn't belong to me would rise in my throat. This lasted until the souls were more digested. They were more active when startled, and more active when they were fresh, and these were old souls. Souls in Singing Hills cemetery. I was still a ghoul now, I guess that is what you would call me, since other creatures call me that now I should accept it as a label at least.
I had the pleasure of seeing my reflection in the dingy sidewalk puddle. My senses were tingling down my hunched spine but the view gave me shivers. I could have been almost 6 feet if I wasn't crouched like a baby. With a curved spine, I was all skin and bones. My eyes were deep green pits without white or pupils, and my skin. Oh, it was pale as death. I looked like something that crawled up from hell. Or 6 feet under. If I compared myself to the creature I saw a few days earlier I at least looked like I was a human at some point. The demon from before was all alien-like and a cloud of pure fear. I was made to kill like a lion, with sharp claws, and jagged teeth. That thing was made to destroy.
I was something grotesque, with no home, no family, no plan. So what did I do?
I walked, listened, and salivated. I hid like a rat in the gutters.
My biggest issue is that I was a predator now, and there was so much prey around me. My mind was constantly tempted with a meal. Each person that slinked by me when I was hiding could be my next victim, next meal in my sharp-toothed mouth.